The $1B Shift No One Is Talking About in Online Education

Broadcasting from our coastal offices in Mauritius and South Africa, we're Chanelle, Chantal and Jennifer - business strategists who've cracked the code on building thriving businesses while actually living the lifestyle most entrepreneurs file under "someday."

The $1B Shift No One Is Talking About in Online Education

The billion dollar shift happening in online education isn't about better marketing. It's about a fundamental change in what people will pay for.

You created that signature course. Poured your heart into it. Spent months recording modules, creating workbooks, building out every detail of your framework. Launched it proudly. And at first, it worked. People bought. Some got incredible results. But lately? Sales have slowed. Completion rates are dismal. And you're watching other course creators pivot while wondering if you need to burn it all down and start over.

Here's the truth: your course isn't broken. The economy around it has fundamentally shifted. What people valued five years ago—comprehensive knowledge, detailed frameworks, weeks of content—isn't what they're willing to pay for today. They want transformation. They want implementation. They want results yesterday, not three months from now after consuming 47 video lessons.

We're Chantal and Chanel, and between us we've built, launched, and worked inside dozens of multi-six and seven-figure online course businesses. We've watched this shift happen in real-time across every niche imaginable. Some course creators are thriving. Others are struggling. And the difference isn't who has the better marketing—it's who understood this fundamental shift from knowledge to transformation.

Today we're breaking down exactly why some niches are exploding while others are dying, what's actually selling in 2025, and the practical steps you can take this week to reinvigorate your existing programs without starting from scratch.

What Is the Knowledge-to-Transformation Shift?

The knowledge-to-transformation shift is the fundamental change in buyer behavior where people are no longer willing to pay primarily for information and education. Instead, they're paying for tangible results, implementation support, and rapid transformation.

Think about it this way: five years ago, you could sell a course that taught someone everything about Facebook ads. Thirty modules. Comprehensive. An encyclopedia of knowledge. People would pay $2,000 for it because the knowledge itself had perceived value.

Today? That same comprehensive course struggles to sell at $500. Why? Because people can get that knowledge from ChatGPT in five minutes. They can ask AI to explain any concept, break down any strategy, give them step-by-step instructions. Knowledge has been commoditized.

But what AI can't do (yet) is implement for them. It can't give them your specific framework applied to their specific business. It can't provide the accountability and support to actually get results. That's what people will still pay premium prices for—not the knowing, but the doing.

Why Health Coaching Is Thriving While Business Coaching Is Struggling

Here's a fascinating contrast we've been watching closely: health and fitness coaching is absolutely exploding right now, while traditional business and lifestyle coaching is on a downward trend. Why?

Health coaches don't make you become an anatomy expert. They don't require you to understand the biochemistry of nutrition or the physiology of muscle growth. They give you a meal plan. They give you a workout schedule. They tell you exactly what to do, when to do it, and what results to expect. You follow the plan, you see results within weeks. It's tangible, it's immediate, and it delivers on the promise.

Traditional business coaching, on the other hand, has often been about teaching you frameworks, having you discover your own answers, going deep on strategy. "Here's my signature 7-step system." Great, but now what? The student is left with knowledge but no clear implementation path.

We're not saying one is better than the other. We're saying the market has clearly spoken about what it values right now. People are time-poor, overwhelmed with information, and skeptical after being burned by courses they never finished. They want you to tell them exactly what to do, not teach them how to figure it out themselves.

The Course Creator's Dilemma: Too Much Value

Here's the painful irony: most struggling course creators have actually created too much value. Your course is comprehensive. Thorough. A masterclass in your expertise. You've included everything and the kitchen sink because you genuinely want to help people succeed.

But that comprehensiveness has become a liability. Students look at your course hub, see 87 lessons spread across 12 modules, and feel overwhelmed before they even start. They watch lesson one, get inspired, but then life happens. A week later they log back in, can't remember where they were, feel guilty about falling behind, and never come back.

It's not that your content is bad. It's that the delivery model—the traditional "watch videos, download workbooks, implement on your own"—doesn't match how people want to learn and implement anymore.

The solution isn't to create less valuable content. It's to package and deliver it differently. It's to use technology (specifically AI) to turn your knowledge into implementation tools that do the heavy lifting for your students.

Practical Reinvention: What to Do With Your Existing Course

Let's get tactical. You don't need to burn anything down. Here's how to reinvigorate what you've already built using AI and modern implementation strategies.

Create Personalized Roadmaps

Most courses require students to go through every lesson sequentially. But what if someone only needs modules 2, 5, and 8 to get their specific result?

Using AI, you can have students fill out a simple assessment form when they join. The AI analyzes their answers against your course content and creates a custom roadmap: "Based on your goals and current situation, start with lesson 12, then watch lesson 3, then move to module 5." Suddenly your 87-lesson course becomes a targeted 15-lesson journey specific to them.

This is easy to implement with tools like Claude AI or custom GPTs. Ask students 5-10 questions, feed their answers into AI along with your course structure, and generate their personalized path.

Transform Videos Into Actionable SOPs

Stop just uploading videos. Take every video transcript and use AI to convert it into a step-by-step SOP with clear headings, bullet points, and action steps. Now students can skim before watching, quickly find what they need, and reference it while implementing without rewatching a 40-minute lesson.

One of our clients recently did this across her entire course. Implementation rates jumped because students could actually use the content while doing the work, not just passively watch and hope to remember.

Build AI-Powered Implementation Tools

This is where it gets exciting. Take your templates and frameworks and turn them into AI tools that do the work for your students.

Example: You teach sales page copywriting. Instead of giving students a template and teaching them how to fill it in, create a form that asks 10 questions about their offer, then uses AI to generate their first draft based on your framework. They go from blank page paralysis to having a solid starting point in minutes.

Another example from Chanel's Brand Your Expertise Online program: Instead of teaching students everything about launches and having them figure it out, create an AI tool that asks "What kind of launch are you doing? 4-day challenge? Masterclass? Both?" and dynamically builds a custom launch plan with only the steps they need.

These tools don't replace your teaching—they accelerate implementation of what you teach.

Package Micro-Offers From Your Mega Course

Your signature program probably covers 8-10 major topics. Instead of only selling the whole enchilada, extract specific transformations and sell them as standalone micro-offers.

We fed Chanel's course sales page into Claude and asked it to suggest micro-offers based on the content. It came back with brilliant suggestions:

• Instant Personal Brand Voice Generator (just the brand voice module as a standalone tool)

• Launch in 30 Days Roadmap (custom launch planning minus all the other business stuff)

• Custom Prompt Library for Course Creators (all your best AI prompts packaged together)

Each of these could be sold for $7-$97 as low-ticket offers that lead into your full program. Or they become value-adds that make your main program more implementation-focused.

Enable Multiple Learning Styles

We all consume content differently. Chanel loves audio-only podcasts and can listen for hours. I need visual elements or I'm out after 10 minutes. Our friend Sharine speed-reads transcripts because both video and audio feel too slow.

Yet most courses only offer one format: watch the video, download the PDF workbook. That's it.

In 2025, offer the video, the audio file, the transcript, a summary, and an editable Google Doc workbook—all for every lesson. Let students consume how they learn best. This isn't more work for you; AI can generate transcripts and summaries in seconds. But it dramatically increases completion and implementation.

The Drip Feed Is Dead (For Most People)

Controversial take: drip-feeding content weekly was a strategy for a different economy. When the whole point was keeping people engaged over time, making the course feel more valuable by stretching it out, preventing overwhelm—sure, it made sense.

But today? Most of us want everything now. We want to feed it all into Claude, compare it against our goals, get our action plan, and implement. We don't want to wait five months while you drip-feed micro-lessons.

Now, caveat: know your audience. Some groups still benefit from structured pacing. But for advanced, motivated, time-starved entrepreneurs? Give them everything and let them move at their speed.

We'd love to hear from you on this. Do you prefer drip-fed content or instant access to everything? Drop a comment and let us know.

The Power of AI-Driven Personalization

Here's what's possible now that wasn't possible even two years ago: true personalization at scale.

Take Chantal's digital product idea generator. You fill out a form. AI generates three custom product ideas for your specific business and audience. Then—and this is the magic—it sends you five automated emails over the next week that talk specifically about YOUR ideas and YOUR next steps for implementing them.

Not generic emails that say "now that you have your idea, here's what to do next." Specific emails that reference the exact product idea that was generated for you and guide you through implementing that specific idea.

This level of personalization used to require hiring a team to manually customize everything. Now it's automated. And it doesn't feel automated—it feels like personal coaching.

This is what your courses should be doing. When students progress through modules, don't send them generic nurture emails. Send them emails that reference their specific goals they shared in onboarding, that acknowledge where they are in the course, that provide encouragement specific to the challenges they noted in their assessment.

Custom GPTs and Framework Bots

If you have a signature framework (and most course creators do), train a custom GPT in your framework. Make it available inside your course. Now students have 24/7 access to coaching in your methodology without booking one-on-ones with you.

Example: You teach a specific copywriting framework. Create a GPT trained on that framework. Students write their sales page draft, paste it into the GPT, and get feedback based on your framework. They refine, paste again, get more feedback. They're essentially getting your expert review without you manually reviewing every student's work.

This isn't replacing you. It's scaling you. It's giving students implementation support that helps them actually get results from your teaching.

Why Traditional Models Are Dying

Let's address the elephant in the room. Traditional coaching—where you're essentially selling access to your energy and wisdom without clear implementation support—is struggling. Not dead, but definitely on the decline.

The Tony Robbins documentary revealed that even after his massive transformational events, only a small percentage of people actually implement what they learned. They felt amazing in the moment, but that high faded and nothing changed.

People are tired of that cycle. They're tired of buying courses they don't finish. They're tired of feeling inspired but overwhelmed. They're tired of "figuring it out" being their responsibility after they've already paid for expertise.

What's thriving? Certification programs where you walk away with a tangible credential. Memberships with ongoing implementation support. Programs that provide the actual tools and templates and done-for-you elements, not just teaching.

Your Three Action Steps This Week

Ready to start the shift? Here's what to do right now.

Step 1: Analyze Your Sales Copy

Take your sales page and run it through AI. Ask: "Does this promise transformation and results, or does it promise knowledge and learning? How could I rewrite this to focus more on the tangible outcomes students will achieve?"

Then look at your delivery. Can you actually deliver on that transformation promise? What tools, templates, or implementation support do you need to add?

Step 2: Marie Kondo Your Course (But Don't Delete)

Go through your signature program with fresh eyes. What can be condensed? What can be extracted and sold as a micro-offer? What needs more implementation support added?

Better yet: feed your best testimonials into Claude. Ask it to identify the transformations people mention most. Whatever wins people rave about—that's what you should be building standalone offers around.

Step 3: Build One AI Implementation Tool

Pick one part of your course where students consistently get stuck or need the most support. Create an AI tool that does that one thing for them.

Sales page copy? Email sequences? Brand voice? Launch planning? Pick one. Create a simple form or GPT. Test it. Refine it. Then offer it as a bonus to new students or a standalone low-ticket product.

You don't need to rebuild everything. You need to start adding implementation layers to what you've already created.

The Uncomfortable Truth About Course Creation Today

Here's what we need to accept: the value isn't in your knowledge anymore. Your knowledge is incredible. Your expertise is real. But knowledge alone doesn't command premium prices in an AI-saturated world.

The value is in your implementation of that knowledge. Your frameworks applied specifically to someone's business. Your templates customized for their situation. Your accountability and support while they execute. Your ability to see what they can't see and guide them around pitfalls.

That's what people will pay for. And with AI, you can deliver that level of customization and support at scale without burning out or hiring a massive team.

This isn't about working harder. It's about working differently. It's about packaging your expertise as implementation tools instead of information dumps. It's about recognizing that your students don't want to learn everything you know—they want you to help them get results using what you know.

Your Next Step

We're deep in this transformation ourselves right now. Chanel is moving her Brand Your Expertise Online program to a new platform and doing a complete audit—not deleting content, but adding AI tools, implementation templates, and personalized pathways that turn knowledge into action.

We're building AI-powered tools for our own businesses and our clients because we see the shift happening in real-time. The course creators who understand this are thriving. The ones still selling "here's 100 videos, good luck" are watching their sales decline.

You don't need to burn down what you've built. You need to layer in implementation. You need to use AI to turn your teaching into doing. You need to shift from educator to transformation facilitator.

The tools exist. The technology is here. The only question is: will you make the shift?

Tell us in the comments:Are you a course creator feeling this shift? What's your biggest challenge right now with your existing programs? We read and respond to every comment.

The Leveraged CEO Podcast is hosted by Chanelle, Chantal and Jennifer, three business strategists with 30+ years of experience helping multi-six and seven-figure entrepreneurs build businesses that run without their constant attention. New episodes drop every Tuesday.